George Kaiser Family Foundation Pledges To Preserve Turkey Mountain

The George Kaiser Family Foundation confirmed Wednesday the purchase of a big part of Tulsa's west-side Turkey Mountain with plans to preserve it, and no plans for commercial development.

Their purchase does not change the plans for an outlet mall, but works around it.

The purchase ensures almost all of Turkey Mountain will be set aside forever as a recreational area and included in the much bigger plans of river development.

Map: GKFF Turkey Mountain Preservation

The natural beauty of Turkey Mountain is safe from commercial development with the revelation that the Kaiser Foundation has quietly purchased enough land to maintain the state's largest urban wilderness.

While one corner is positioned for an outlet mall, the Foundation owns - or has an interest - in almost all of the rest of it.

"We're wanting to protect those assets. We're wanting to enhance those assets for everyone in Tulsa and the region to enjoy,” said Jeff Stava with the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Stava said the Foundation plans to preserve and improve Turkey Mountain, positioning it as a professionally designed outdoor sports park that retains the existing wilderness.

8/20/2014: Related Story: Proposed Outlet Mall Would Close Some Turkey Mountain Trails

"By putting this land together, we have a tremendous asset that can be used for a lot of things - mountain biking, trail running, compass courses, rappelling - so there's a lot of extreme sports activities that can be programmed within the urban wilderness, so it can be a tremendous asset for the community,” Stava said.

Tulsa Philanthropist George Kaiser is behind the foundation's plans to build up parks and River Parks in particular. The existing wilderness park is adjacent to the river and the outlet mall property is on the west side.

The Foundation fully owns 139 acres in between the two properties and is a partner on another large tract.

The other property on the mountain that's used publicly might also be utilized in the overall Kaiser strategy.

Altogether it's 470 acres of urban wilderness.

Hundreds of people showed up Monday for a town hall meeting concerned they would lose access to the mountain. The news that Turkey Mountain is safe is sure to be a relief.

Bryan Duval, with T-Town Bicycles said, “That's phenomenal and awesome. That would be the one acceptable solution to what everybody feared, that we would lose this chunk and then we'd lose even more of it.”

The Foundation plans to keep the land exactly as it is for some time and work on major improvements in a couple of years, after more work is done on the Gathering Place which, by trails, is linked across the river to the Mountain.